‘Informed Seeing’: Reading the Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Cabinet at Milton Manor House through its Historical and Social Contexts

This object lesson examines a seventeenth-century cabinet, held at Milton Manor House in Oxfordshire, which has been embroidered with biblical scenes. Starting from the premise that knowledge informs seeing, this article provides a close reading of the cabinet’s iconography and historical context in order to highlight the knowledge — both the general ideologies and the individual interpretation — that may have informed its production. Through a detailed reading, the maker’s negotiation of the virtue of submissiveness, a major tenet of women’s education in the period, is identified as a possible theme.     

Constraints on Local Welfare Discretion in an Era of Second‐Order Devolution

Under devolution, state and local governments are expected to use the greater authority granted to them to design new and innovative programs that are tailored to local needs. Existing research on the devolution of welfare programs has reported substantial variation in the policies adopted by states in the wake of welfare reform. However, under second‐order devolution, local governments also gained discretion over welfare services. Some have argued that, while devolution should increase flexibility, local governments face constraints that limit their functional discretion. Using California as an example, I assess whether there is variation in the service priorities adopted by local governments and whether these priorities translate to frontline practices. I show differences in the service priorities of local governments; however, these priorities are not associated with differences in sanctioning or time‐limit exemptions. Thus, while local governments may formally adopt different priorities, state and federal policy choices, as well as client characteristics, may restrict priorities from translating into differences in caseworker behavior.     

In here and out there: Sensations between Self and landscape

Early childhood experience of Self in relation to Other may profoundly influence subsequent perception and experience of landscape as an adult. Yet, these past and present spatial relationships are often held in unconscious levels of the psyche, which are difficult to articulate when approached by conventional qualitative methods. Engaging with psychotherapeutic methodologies has proved highly productive in facilitating adults to connect with and articulate their perception of landscape. In this paper I demonstrate the application of object relations psychoanalytic theory in qualitative research undertaken to explore the complexities of the influence of gender identity on landscape perception in adults. I draw on D.W. Winnicott's theory of 'potential space', as the location of culture, to develop a methodology that focuses on sensory experience, in particular the tactile. In this way participants were facilitated to access early regressed spaces whilst staying connected with present experience. Reporting on a series of practical workshops, used alongside in-depth interviewing techniques, I show how it is possible to examine the complex conscious and unconscious relationships at different sensory levels between Self and landscape.     

Simone de Beauvoir: Problems of (self‐)definition

Beauvoir, S. de, Letters to Sartre, translated by Hoare, Q. (Radius, 1991), 531pp., £20, ISBN 0 09 174774 0

Moi, T., Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (Blackwell, 1994), 324pp., £12.95, ISBN 9 631 19181 X     

The environment and minor-party insurgency in Australian politics: the case of logging and the ‘liberals for forests’

It is known that many Liberal–National voters are environmentally conscious. However, the lack of importance of environmentalism in influencing voter behaviour in Australia, compared with socio-economic ideologies and issues, means that few Liberal–National identifiers are likely to find appeal in the parties which place most emphasis on protecting the natural environment, as these parties are generally Left-leaning with regard to socio-economic policy. Given the balance of influences on the vote, Liberal–National vulnerability on environmental issues would seem to be most exploitable by a Right-of-Centre environmental party. This article examines the case of the ‘liberals for forests’, a rare example of just such a party, which had some success in Western Australian State elections in 2001. The paper supports the notion that environmental issues, including those such as logging often linked with Left partisan ship, have the potential to influence vote choice, in a positive sense, on the Right as well as the Left of Australian politics. Implications for the Liberal Party and the party system are discussed.     

Kincentric Ecology,Species Maintenance and the Relational Power of Place in Northern Australia

This paper considers themes of species maintenance and place engagement in Yanyuwa country, northern Australia. It traces the complexity of interpretations and relational contexts involved in places that are commonly – and we argue – misleadingly, referred to as increase and magic sites. Examining one specific place, at which people carry out maintenance rituals, we explore the complex bonds that unite Yanyuwa with the geography that is the Ancestral Hill Kangaroo. Not content with the classificatory habit of declaring actions either increase oriented or hunting magic, this research more fully explicates the relational substance of places that play a key role in ecological health. This is achieved by asking how might the profundity of a place of relational importance, such as a maintenance site, be better understood and written of in ways that convey an Indigenous ontology and epistemology?